India Inc makes a beeline to grab the .asia domain

Harsimran Singh, TNNOct 9, 2007, 01.28pm IST

NEW DELHI: Before cyber squatters can get hold of prized virtual .asia identities, the real owners want to ensure that they have booked the domain names. Companies are making a beeline to grab the .asia domain being launched on Tuesday.

According to sources, Bharti Airtel, Reliance ADAG, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra, T-series and several other companies have already expressed interest in buying .asia domain names. ICICIBank, Maruti, Airtel and others have faced problems in the past with their domain names – Airtel.com, Maruti.com, ICICI-bank.net — which were registered by someone else.

Priced at $100, the .asia domain names will carry a registration fee of Rs 1,600 for two years fee. "We expect about 30,000 .asia domains to be registered by February, 2008," says Ching Chiao, VP Community Relations at DotAsia registry based in Hong Kong.

"We have got the permission to launch .asia domain from ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) after six years of deliberations. The .asia community will be beneficial for all companies having Asia wide operations," he added. ICANN is the apex body that registers, manages and introduces new domains.

In India, Net4, an Internet Service Provider for enterprises, along with two other ICANN registrars Directi, GoodLuckDomain will offer the .asia domains from October 9. "In the first phase we will offer the domains to all sovereign rights holders (like government or industry associations).

The second phase will be open for companies having registered trademarks. The third phase will be for companies who have applied for trademarks. In the fourth and last phase we will offer a land rush which will close in one day," Mr Jasjit Sawhney, CEO Net4 said.

In a land rush, individuals can buy all unregistered domain names. Domain name squatters have also set sights on .Asia. About 140 million domain names have already been sold on the internet. The average price of a domain name sold today is about $5,000 with some crucial (company) domains being sold for over a million dollars.

Indian companies have also faced problems in the past with mischievous squatters posting objectionable pictures on a company's similar sounding domain name. No wonder the rush now by the genuine owners of virtual identities, to register the .asia domain.